Nanê Sajî: The Paper-Thin Kurdish Bread the World Calls Turkish

Mero Ranyayi
May 28
5 min read

Nanê Sajî: The Paper-Thin Kurdish Bread the World Calls Turkish

Nanê sajî is an unleavened, paper-thin Kurdish flatbread baked in seconds on a saji — a convex iron griddle heated over open flame. Made from nothing but flour, water, and salt, it is rolled so thin it is almost translucent, then flipped onto the scorching dome of the saji where it cooks in a flash. Wikipedia’s entry for this bread records its Sorani Kurdish name as nanî kurdî (نانی کوردی) — literally “Kurdish bread.” The Kurdish language itself names this bread after the nation. Yet “several websites stated that this is a Turkish Bread,” writes a Kurdish diaspora blogger. “It is called Yufka. Although it has same procedures as Kurdish flat bread, this is not only considered as Turkish bread. Kurdish people have been making this bread for many and many years.” This is the bread that every Kurdish household makes. It is faster than nanê tenûrê, lighter than kulere, and older than any border. The saji — the convex iron griddle — is as important to Kurdish cooking as the tanûr. Where the tanûr is the oven of celebrations and communal baking, the saji is the tool of everyday survival: portable, fast, and able to produce bread anywhere a fire can be lit.

Key Takeaways

• Unleavened paper-thin bread made from flour, water, and salt — baked in seconds on a saji (convex iron griddle)

• Wikipedia records the Sorani Kurdish name as nanî kurdî — literally “Kurdish bread” — yet it is widely labelled Turkish yufka

• The saji is the second great Kurdish cooking tool — portable, fast, everyday — counterpart to the tanûr’s communal celebration

• Kelane (herbed stuffed bread) is traditionally cooked on a saji too — the saji is a bread platform, not a single recipe

Quick Facts

Kurdish Names: Nanê Sajî / Nanî Kurdî (نانی کوردی) — literally “Kurdish bread”

Rebranded As: Yufka (Turkish), Markook/Shrak (Arabic) — the Kurdish name invisible internationally

Cooking Tool: Saji — convex iron griddle heated over open flame

Ingredients: Flour, water, salt — nothing else. No yeast, no oil, no sugar

Origins: A Bread Named After the Nation

Very few foods in any cuisine carry the name of the nation in their own language. The Kurdish language calls this bread nanî kurdî — “Kurdish bread.” This is not a name assigned by outsiders or historians. It is what Kurdish speakers themselves call this bread when they speak Kurdish. Wikipedia’s entry on saj bread documents this Sorani name alongside Arabic and Turkish names. Yet internationally, the bread is filed under Arabic (markook, shrak) or Turkish (yufka, sac ekmeği). A Kurdish diaspora blogger, writing in 2011, describes researching this bread online and finding that “several websites stated that this is a Turkish Bread called Yufka.” She pushes back: “Kurdish people have been making this bread for many and many years. It has long history behind it.” The bread is named “Kurdish bread” in Kurdish. The internet calls it Turkish. The pattern is identical to ecîn, to büryan, to kulicha: the Kurdish name exists but is invisible.

Traditional Preparation: The Saji and the Teirok

Flour, water, and salt are mixed into a simple dough. It is kneaded until smooth and rested for thirty minutes to an hour. The dough is divided into balls and each ball is rolled out with a teirok (rolling pin) on a missteqe (low bread-making table) until it is paper-thin — so thin that light passes through it. The Kurdish blogger describes tools her father made by hand and a saji brought from Kurdistan itself. The rolled dough is flipped onto the scorching convex dome of the saji, where it cooks in seconds. It blisters, it chars in spots, it stiffens. It is peeled off the dome, folded, and stacked. Thirty sheets can be made in an hour. The bread is stored folded and can last for days. It is eaten plain, wrapped around cheese and herbs for breakfast, used as a scoop for stew, or softened with water and used as a base under meat. Its thinness is its virtue: it takes on the flavour of whatever it touches.

Two Kurdish Cooking Tools: The Saji and the Tanûr

This series has now documented the two great cooking tools of Kurdish bread-making. The tanûr is a clay oven sunk into the ground: immovable, communal, ceremonial. It produces nanê tenûrê (thick tandoor bread), büryan (pit-roasted lamb), and kuki (filled pastry). The saji is a convex iron griddle over open flame: portable, individual, everyday. It produces nanê sajî (paper-thin bread) and kelane (herbed stuffed bread). The tanûr is the oven of the village centre. The saji is the tool of the shepherd, the nomad, the mountain family. The tanûr is permanent. The saji goes wherever you go. Together, they map Kurdish life from the settled to the moving, from the communal to the solitary. A Kurdish family needs both: the tanûr for feast days, the saji for every other day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is nanê sajî Kurdish or Turkish?

Wikipedia records the Sorani Kurdish name as nanî kurdî — literally “Kurdish bread.” The Kurdish language itself names this bread after the Kurdish nation. Kurdish families have been making this bread for centuries using handmade tools: the teirok (rolling pin), the missteqe (bread-making table), and the saji (convex iron griddle). International food media labels it Turkish yufka, but a Kurdish diaspora blogger documents: “This is not only considered as Turkish bread. Kurdish people have been making this bread for many and many years.”

What is a saji?

A saji is a convex iron griddle heated over open flame. Thin-rolled dough is flipped onto its scorching dome and cooks in seconds. It is the portable counterpart to the tanûr (clay oven): where the tanûr is immovable and communal, the saji can be carried anywhere a fire can be lit. It is the tool of Kurdish shepherds, nomads, and mountain families — enabling bread-making in any location.

How does nanê sajî differ from nanê tenûrê?

Nanê tenûrê is a thicker, leavened or semi-leavened bread baked by slapping dough against the inner wall of a clay oven (tanûr). Nanê sajî is an unleavened, paper-thin bread baked on a convex iron griddle (saji) over open flame. Nanê tenûrê is the communal bread of village life. Nanê sajî is the portable bread of nomadic and everyday life. Different tools, different thicknesses, different traditions.

What does nanî kurdî mean?

Nanî kurdî means “Kurdish bread” in Sorani Kurdish. It is the name Kurdish speakers use for this bread in their own language. Wikipedia documents this as the Sorani Kurdish name for saj bread. Very few foods in any cuisine carry the name of the nation in their own language — this bread does. The Kurdish name itself is a claim of identity.

Conclusion

Nanê sajî is the sixty-fifth article in this series, and it is the one whose name says everything. In Kurdish, this bread is called nanî kurdî — Kurdish bread. The language itself claims it. And yet international food media files it under Turkish (yufka), Arabic (markook), or generic “Middle Eastern flatbread.” A Kurdish woman in the diaspora writes about her mother baking this bread with handmade tools brought from Kurdistan, and finding online that “several websites stated that this is a Turkish Bread.” Sixty-five articles in, the erasure is always the same: the food is known, the Kurdish name is not. But the Kurdish name for this bread is the name of the nation itself. Nanî kurdî. Kurdish bread. You cannot erase a name that is a nation.